The 1st Century Church vs the Contemporary Church

I think that first I must identify myself. I'm a pastor who has 2 church music degrees and spent the better part of 20 years as a Minister of Music and Youth. As pastor of a fairly "traditional" church (we have a choir and sing hymns from hymnals) I often get "suggestions" from people that they would like to see more "praise and worship" (meaning choruses or JOY-FM music) Let me hasten to say that I like it all from classical to contemporary (which varies depending on where you live) to hip-hop to rap. I decided to look in the Bible to find what I could about worship.
Interestingly enough, I found very little about music, except in the Psalms and in Revelation. The defining words about the "new" church in Acts 2 are fellowship, praising God (which incorporates more than music) and meeting needs.To steal a phrase from Rick Warren, "It's not about you!" We are to worship God...not a genre of music or a style of preaching. Since He created all music and all musicians, I think He must have a broad spectrum of preferences concerning worship music. So many of us get holy "chill bumps" when some of our favorite songs are sung without paying much attention to the message. We just like the beat or the melody. God listens to the content regardless of the medium.
While I'm on a "rant", let me say a word about appropriate dress for the pastor & staff. Before Levis, Khakis, sneakers and untucked checkered shirts, there were robes and sandals (in both the OT and NT) I found nothing in Paul's letters to Timothy that addressed how he should dress as a pastor. Again, it is the message, not the medium that is important. My friend, Joe McKeever, recently posted on his Facebook page about the difference in the appearance of some pastors and the sportscasters on Sportscenter. His point was that it is not necessary to "dress down" in order to communicate to the younger generation. Evidently he got a lot of flack in the comments because he has since deleted the post.
Well there you have it. So far as I am concerned you can dress any way you please so long as it is not distracting from the worship of God. As for me, I want to point people to Jesus not to the latest clothing fad. I'm all for bringing back robes. (tongue firmly planted in cheek)

Get link

Facebook

Twitter

Pinterest

Google+

Email

Other Apps

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

All last week I struggled with
whether to express my opinion about the NFL protests during the playing of the
Star-Spangled Banner. I finally decided
that enough opinions had been recorded on FaceBook, Twitter, etc. This morning I awoke to the news of the
shooting in Las Vegas. The “talking
heads” on TV have been vomiting verbiage while they know very little about what
really transpired and especially why it happened. There are a few things that I do know, so I
decided to weigh in. ·Anyone, anywhere at any time could
become a victim, so it is important to ‘live ready”. ·Because of the rise of vehement
tirades of hatred that we are exposed to almost daily, those who are prone to
violence are easily set off. Words do
lead to actions. Words pack more power
than most people think. Words created
the universe. ·We do have a responsibility to alert
authorities if we know of someone who may have expressed extreme views or
threats. ·With the rise of anarchy, where many
feel that they are ab…

Recently I've been reminded that answers to prayer are worth the wait. For almost 6 years we have been praying at Faith Baptist Church for God to send us some young families. In the past two weeks He has sent us two such families. We have also had a relative of mine by marriage on the "spiritual needs" prayer list. On Easter Sunday he professed his faith in Christ. Too often we tend to want to see answers yesterday to prayers we prayed today. I'm reminded that God's timing is perfect, but mine isn't.
This has given me encouragement in prayer. When I pray for those people or things that God brings to my attention, I can be assured of an answer...in His time. My BIG prayer now is for Spiritual Awakening in America. I don't care where it starts or whom God uses to bring it to pass...I just want to see it happen. The first two "Great Awakenings" in America were each born through prayer. I believe this next one will also come through praye…

New polls show that many people who attend church once a month or quarter or maybe even twice a year consider themselves to be "regular attenders". This has resulted in a new classification of church attenders called "Chresters" (Christmas and Easter attenders). It seems that the younger generation does not see church attendance as a priority. Perhaps they have forgotten that the fact of their parents or grandparents being consistent in their church attendance is a factor in their coming into a relationship with God. It doesn't take much for such people to miss church; visiting relatives, hobbies, family time, preparation for the coming work week all take precedence over church attendance.
Once when I was a Youth Pastor, I devised a plan to emphasize the flippant attitude many of them had toward church. With only a couple of people being aware of what was up, I did not show up for Youth Group on a Wednesday evening. After waiting for about 10 minutes, on…